I like Tempranillo, specifically Rioja.
I picked up some amontillado. Not my cuppa. Granted, there will be variations among wineries but I don’t get it. Maybe it’s a rarity thing?
It’s Sherry. Many people don’t care for it; including me, honestly, unless I’m having it with certain foods. Pretty much that way for all of the Palomino-based Sherries. (Pedro Ximenez, OTOH…)
If you want to keep trying Sherries, I’d recommend trying a “Fino” Sherry next. It’ll be light in color, a touch salty, and a wine best as an aperitif, or with a basic cold cut/mixed nuts kind of appetizer tray. Though, now that I think of it, I wonder how it would hold up to things like grilled octopus or grilled peppers? “Manzanilla” is similar, but heavier. Buy a half bottle: they don’t last forever open, and they’re not the kinds of drinks you chug. Good producers include: Gonzales-Byuss ‘Tio Pepe’, Emilio Lustau.
It’s a Lustau and I probably wouldn’t buy another bottle whatever the brand. It wasn’t super expensive, at least. I guess maybe Spanish wine (reading up on it, I didn’t realize it was a “protected” name like Champagne) was hard to come by in the early 1800s for Poe. The Poe Toaster didn’t drink it.
The significance of the cognac is uncertain, as it does not feature in Poe’s works (as would, for example, amontillado); but a note left at the 2004 visitation suggested that the cognac may have represented a tradition of the Toaster’s family rather than Poe’s.[6]
Sherry usually isn’t expensive. You can get the best of the best without killing your wallet, despite wine importers best attempts to market rare versions for $$$.
If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. No big deal. Find something you might.
I will say the PX sweet wines from the Jerez (“Sherry”) region and the ‘nearby’ one of Montilla-Moriles are outstanding. Outstanding. Like drinking sweet motor oil that tastes like raisins and plums and treacle, and some cooked baking spices like cardamom. Absolutely decadent. Go for Alvear’s offerings, if you’re interested.
To be fair, I don’t find them very similar, even though they derive from the same grape. I drink a lot of Primitivo (too much) but find Zinfandel too cloyingly rich and sweet. Most Primitivo I come across has an earthier, damp, musky flavour I love. Obviously it’s the terroir, as the French would say (can’t think of the italian word). Primitivo is grown in the scorching South of Italy, where the earth is this amazing rich red colour.
I’m with you on Portuguese reds - Douro, Dao are all favourites in this house. Port is on the banned list though - the cause of some of my worst hangovers.
Not all Zins are going to be jammy fruit bombs, but you’re right that a lot of them are. There are Zins that aren’t, and are more like how you describe Primitivo. If you’re interested, I’d recommend Storybook Canyon’s Zins, if you could find them. Nalle and Quivira make fairly restrained, elegant Zins, decent acid, some brushy notes, in the case of the Nalle.
Ridge Vineyards’ ‘Geyserville’ is largely Zin, and organic now, I was surprised to learn. Geyserville is probably the easiest to find, a good wine in it’s own right, and—weirdly for Zin—better with a few years age on it, IMHO. Just some suggestions.
So who out there has love for Lambrusco? The selection where I live is piss poor at best, and that includes a giant Total Wine & More store. There are maybe two or three brands available typically and they are pretty cheap plonk at around $9-$12 a bottle. Still, for me, there are few wines that go so well with pizza as a chilled Lambrusco.
I used to be a Pinot Noir guy, but in recent years I’ve developed a taste for oaky Chardonnays and dry Cabernets.
Kind of you, thanks for the suggestions.
I like similar wines—light, fizzy/frizzante reds, with varying sweetness and loads of fruit—but I’ve not tried them with pizza. Supposedly, Neapolitans like a local version of Lambrusco called “Gragnano” with their pizza. Naturally Total doesn’t carry it.
Things like Bugey-Cerdon are just plain fun. Loads of strawberry flavors. Drop an ice cube in it kind of wine.
There’s a less fun, but probably better with pizza, lightly sparkling, earthy kind of rose from William Chris in Texas. Pétillant-naturel style, and more on those here.
I’ll have to try some Lambrusco with pizza next time. It sounds like it goes together wonderfully.
I’m going to see if I can find some at some local non chain stores. Failing that, Total Wine is usually pretty good at ordering wines they carry in their other stores. So perhaps the TW&M store in Texas will share a few bottles with Virginia.
I found a bottle of Barefoot named “Sweet Red Blend.” It is sweet, but I like it. There’s a little seal that says “Gold 90 points!” I think Target charged like $7 for a bottle of it. Seems like “Blend” gives the maker a lot of license…next bottle might be very different?
Mildly sweet red wines make the bills go away for a lot of wineries. Had a friend with a winery, long ago when they were getting it started, have a batch of some Cab or Merlot that wouldn’t ferment to dryness. In desperation to get something out of it, they bottled it as a table wine red blend. It surprised him to see people like it, order it by the case, and call him later to see if he had any more of it.
Anyway, “blend” for Barefoot here just means they’ve got lots of flexibility in what they choose to use to construct that given flavor profile, color, and alcohol. I’d think it would be remarkably consistent. Winemaking (and food & beverage manufacturing as a whole) process engineering has improved dramatically over the last 50 years, eliminating flaws that used to have to be observed for when evaluating a given wine. It’s never been better to buy and enjoy inexpensive wine than these days.
I should have written “Storybook Mountain” and not “Canyon” in the recommendations for SanVito.
It’s been a few months since the last time I bought a bottle of it, so the exact labeling escapes me at the moment, but that could be, probably is, it exactly. As for consistency, they seem to have that wine down pretty good, I’ve never noticed any great differences from bottle to bottle.
I like the Italian reds, but my wife like French wines, and we’ve been drinking Morgon Beaujolais recently. I have to admit I like it quite a bit.
But what I really like is drinking Champag… er, sparkling wine. We are somewhat lucky in New Mexico to have Gruet made here. It’s relatively cheap (about $14-16) and really good. Nothing beats drinking champagne for the sake of drinking champagne. Even better on a hot day.
Just for giggles. I made a 60. The average score is 66.65.
- Excuse me while I open another bota box over here.
edit: at least I can pick out the right glass
Ah, cardboard-eaux! Actually i don’t mind some of it. When retirement (with its attendant income reduction) arrives, I suspect it will be carrying a box and whispering my name.
By the way, the quiz I posted is just one…that site’s home page shows ALL the wine quizzes, 23 of them. I tried #2 and got a 45. Average on that one: 70.19. Time to stop…